Statistics Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. recently released a batch of data looking at "non-resident" ownership of housing in Toronto and Vancouver. Many observers have tried to spin the data in misleading ways, so it is important to look closely at what the data tell us – and what they don't. Here are four important takeaways.

To be sure, Toronto has seen some signs of recovery in the past two months, with sales in December having the smallest yearly decline since the introduction of a foreign home-buyer tax in Ontario in April. Still, the market now faces a new hurdle as homebuyers who don’t take out mortgage insurance will have to qualify at higher rates.

“Canadian cities like Toronto, which are experiencing an affordability crunch, can accommodate much more housing supply. There’s a lot of room to grow, especially upward,” said senior policy analyst Josef Filipowicz, who wrote “Room to Grow: Comparing Urban Density in Canada and Abroad.”

If B.C. Green Party Leader, Andrew Weaver had his way, a ban on foreign buyers investing in the province's real estate market would be announced in the upcoming budget. "This is unsustainable," said Weaver. "If we don't curb the amount of the demand side of this equation, it's only going to get worse."

In the last year, American home buyers faced shortages in the number of properties available for sale. “We saw the lowest number of active listings for sale in over two decades, a full generation,” said Javier Vivas, director of economic research for Realtor.com, which maintains a database of more than 99 percent of homes listed nationally and provided data for this article.

After two years of propping up apartment prices with behind-the-scenes offers of free months and gift cards, owners contending with a flood of supply could no longer hold up the dam. They still offered sweeteners -- last month, in 36 percent of all new leases, a record share -- but they also agreed to whittle what they charged in rents.

Poor families in the United States are having an increasingly difficult time finding an affordable place to live, due to high rents, static incomes and a shortage of housing aid. Tenant advocates worry that the new tax bill, as well as potential cuts in housing aid, will make the problem worse.

Looking out over the London skyline now, we see both of these kind of towers: high-rises built as homes for the people, and shiny, thrusting vertical edifices of the financial heart of the city -- the Gherkin, Cheesegrater, Walkie Talkie et al. We see the new luxury developments, super high-rises built as high-end homes -- or more often investment opportunities. Just as old London's skyline reflected the aspirations and ideas of its age, we see silhouettes that reflect ours.

Now Oman is trying for a new planned city: Madinat Al-Irfan will be located to the west of Muscat, Oman’s capital, near the international airport. The government has already built a convention center and a few hotels on the 1,500-acre site. Over the next 30 years it plans to add a central business district, a university, government buildings, souks, mosques, and residential neighborhoods, with the aim of hosting a population of 280,000.